Progress? From western medicine? As far as there concerned, its done.
Dessicated thyroid was started 100 years ago (that is still the best for some Hashi people), and synthetic T4 was developed by the US army in WWII along with the atomic program - in preparation for radiation fallout, which kills the thyroid and could kill pigs. Sad but true.
They put us on prescription thyroid for life and make money off us, which is there priority.
Modern medicine has no interest in curing anything, they want management in the form of costly drugs. Keep us alive, but customers for life. Its a game.
Now that I'm done ranting, do you have a specific Hashi question?
Unfortunately, the root cause of I believe almost all autoimmune diseases are unknown. I have yet to hear of a doctor knowing why the body turns on it's own healthy tissue. I have a good friend with Hashimotos, and there is no cure, but she is controlled with thyroid stability medications, and if she gets a terrible flare-up, she goes on a course of prednisone. With most autoimmune diseases, since there are no cures, it's best to treat the source of the symptoms. With Hashimotos, that is the thyroid.
I'm desperately trying to find a diagnosis for my own autoimmune disease. My doctor told me something I never thought of before, last week while in my appointment. I was one to think there is a definite diagnosis for every disease, and a way to treat them. With many rare diseases, this isn't the case.
"medicine isn't exact. We as doctors don't know everything. I'm sure in time, as research progresses, we will have more answers, but maybe not! You can spend millions of dollars going to the best specialists in the world and they may not know what is wrong, or what is causing it. And if they do diagnose you, there probably isnt a cure. Diseases present themselves in different ways. Sometimes you just have to accept that there may not be a known cure, or there may be an unknown condition. It's sad, but unfortunately very true."
Just something to ponder.
Best of luck.
So basically after nearly 100 years no progress has been made in research. How sad that medical research isn't as technal advanced as I thought.
Sad isn't it? The money for research tends to go to the big ones, the common ones like cancer and heart disease. Most professionals don't come across Hashimotos on a regular basis...why bother? It's so sad. Do you have the disease? I know there are many rheumatological treatments that help the symptoms. Just don't give up hope. Search online for Hashimotos support groups and foundations. They are the ones that are most up to date. Good luck.
No need to look very far, the thyroid group right here on medhelp has the best Q/A forum of all. Good technical knowledge as opposed to the fluff other sites seem to have.
There is some common thought that autoimmune disorders are a product of modern civilization - chemicals , plastics, processed foods, flouride in water, ect. Why the developed countries have more issues than undeveloped countries.
To sum it all up treat the symptoms but not the cause How logical is that?
I am extremely disappointed with my endo and GP Dr.s and I feel that I am forced to take matters in to my own hands and I truly believe that, that would not be necessary for me to do if doctors didn't have a conveyer belt of patients on an assembly line. Both my endo doctor and GP doctor keeps calling me Mrs and I'm not married.